Bank donates $3,000 to center in honor of Rock Hill woman who returned ATM money

Wells Fargo Regional President Kendall Alley presented the York County Council on Aging with a check for $3,000 Wednesday at the Rock Hill Senior Center in honor of social worker Becky Wright, who is employed at the council. Wells Fargo gave Wrigh

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Wells Fargo Regional President Kendall Alley presented the York County Council on Aging with a check for $3,000 Wednesday at the Rock Hill Senior Center in honor of social worker Becky Wright, who is employed at the council. Wells Fargo gave Wrigh

“It is always right to do the right thing,” said Wells Fargo regional president Kendall Alley, as he surprised a room full of senior clients of the York County Council on Aging with a giant ceremonial check for $3,000 in the name of Wright, a social worker at the senior center.

The room applauded Wright, who just two weeks ago was a social worker laboring in near anonymity. Now after intense media coverage first reported by The Herald, has become a national face for doing a good deed.

Wright found $300 at a Rock Hill Wells Fargo ATM July 27. She turned the money in to police, saying that somebody out there needed that hard-earned money.

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On the description line of the check Wells Fargo gave Wednesday: “Good deed.”

Wright’s story of doing the right thing has been shared and seen thousands of times via Facebook and other social media sites. Alley and other bank officials, along with Rock Hill police, acknowledge that someone returning a find of $300 is a rare act of kindness. So the bank wanted to make sure that the kindness was returned to the clients that Wright serves.

The experience of becoming the face of doing the right thing has been all positive for Wright, as she has received countless thanks. But more, she said, the seniors the center serves have received much-needed attention.

“This has brought light to the people that we serve, that I work with,” Wright said. “Our whole job is helping people.”

Management at the senior center did more than say how proud they were of Wright’s generous act. Council on Aging Executive Director Wendy Duda led the applause for Wright when the check was given out.

“Becky Wright showed the best of all of us as human beings,” Duda said.

Wells Fargo also gave each senior in attendance Wednesday a gift – a stuffed pony – and threw in a collector’s edition cookie jar shaped like the Wells Fargo stagecoach for Wright. It was such a good news event that Wright’s father and stepmother made the trip from Pageland to beam with pride.

The story of Becky Wright’s good deed has an even happier ending. Bank officials were able to identify the customer who forgot the money in the ATM cash slot July 27, and the money that had been in the Rock Hill Police Department evidence room is now back with the guy who earned it and needed it for his family.

Wright, a Winthrop University graduate, said Wednesday it was “good to know, finally” that the money has been reunited with the person who lost it.

“That was the one thing everybody has asked me,” she said, “whether the money ever made it back to the person.”

Wright, like all people with good hearts, loves a happy ending.

But all tales need a start, and this one began with Wright’s kindness. From the time she found the money, Wright has pointed out that $300 is a lot of money for almost anybody.

As Alley told the crowd on Wednesday: “Becky Wright did the right thing.”